MoMA Announces Major Wright Exhibition

Although the show will obviously coincide with Wright's 150th birthday, it will come five years after MoMA and Columbia University’s Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library jointly acquired the massive archives of Frank Lloyd Wright, which were housed previously at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation at Taliesin West in Arizona. By virtue of the archive's size, the major exhibition next year will display on a tiny portion of the its 23,000 drawings, 44,000 historical photographs, large-scale presentation models, manuscripts, extensive correspondence and other documents.

A description of the exhibition from MoMA:

Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive is a major exhibition on Frank Lloyd Wright that critically engages his multifaceted practice. Wright was one of the most prolific and renowned architects of the 20th century, a radical designer and intellectual who embraced new technologies and materials, pioneered do-it-yourself construction systems as well as avant-garde experimentation, and advanced original theories with regards to nature, urban planning, and social politics. Marking the 150th anniversary of the American architect’s birth on June 8, 1867, the exhibition will comprise approximately 450 works made from the 1890s through the 1950s, including architectural drawings, models, building fragments, films, television broadcasts, print media, furniture, tableware, textiles, paintings, photographs, and scrapbooks, along with a number of works that have rarely or never been publicly exhibited. Structured as an anthology rather than a comprehensive, monographic presentation of Wright’s work, the exhibition is divided into 12 sections, each of which investigates a key object or cluster of objects from the Frank Lloyd Wright Archive, interpreting and contextualizing it, as well as juxtaposing it with other works from the Archive, from MoMA, or from outside collections. The exhibition seeks to open up Wright’s work to critical inquiry and debate, and to introduce experts and general audiences alike to new angles and interpretations of this extraordinary architect. Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive is organized by MoMA in collaboration with the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York, and organized by Barry Bergdoll, Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA.